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AUXILIARY EDUCATION SOCIETY 



OF 



NEWBURTPORT, 



SEPT. 1822. 



BY S. P. WILLIAM* l&^&f/^ M Jr i 



NEWBURYPORT, 

PRINTED BY W. & J. GILMA1S", 

9, STATE-STREET. 



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X O do good and to communicate happiness, 
is the sum of all our obligations to man. Every act of 
beneficence therefore flowing from such intention, and 
guided by sound discretion, is a sacrifice well pleasing 
unto God. Regardless of his obligations to his own spe- 
cies, man is a blank in the moral creation. Not to en- 
courage others in the fulfilment of their obligations is to 
be little better. But to throw obstacles in the way of 
such as are laboring to do good, is to oppose the course 
of private virtue and public happiness. These senti- 
ments, within the last half century, have been impress- 
ed upon the public mind with a power and efficacy, un- 
exampled since the conclusion of the apostolic age. 
Their good fruits are already scattered in every quar- 
ter of the globe ; and by this test the tree which bears 
them is proved to be of celestial origin ; its leaves are 
adapted to the healing of the nations. 

It is because it would be inconsistent with these sen- 
timents to decline the sacrifice, that 1 have consented 
to supplicate your interest in the object of the Society 
of Young Men, whose anniversary hag now for the first 
time attracted public notice. 



That object, as you have been apprized, is the as- 
sistance of those indigent youth of our country, who as- 
pire to the office of the christian ministry. Concerning 
the many, and accumulating claims of the destitute, 
which obtrude themselves upon the public ear, it has 
seemed to me our duty to enquire before we act, and 
to proportion our gifts to the character of the object 
for which they are imparted. For a blind charity, is no 
more a virtue, than a dead faith. In regard to the par- 
ticular object therefore, for whose furtherance we are 
assembled this evening, 1 propose three enquiries. 
Is the object a good one ? 
Is its accomplishment practicable ? 
Does it deservedly hold such a rank among other 
charitable objects of the day, as to entitle it to a share 
of our alms-givings, as well as affections and prayers ? 

Is the object a good one ? — I do not ask whether 
the ordinance of the christian ministry be of divine ap- 
pointment or of human invention ; nor whether the in- 
fluence of such a ministry be essential to the highest 
welfare of mankind. These are questions which wait 
not our decision. God has settled them from the begin- 
ning, and it is not our unhappiness to be united to an as- 
sembly who doubt the wisdom and justice of his decis- 
ion. But the question whose solution is to have an in- 
fluence in governing our actions is, will it promote vir- 
tue, and of consequence diffuse happiness, to aid young 
men of promise, and dependent on the public bounty, in 
their preparation for the sacred office? Is a multiplica- 
tion of well qualified pastors, beyond the ordinary means 
of supply, actually needed by the church? Are they so 
urgently called for, as to render necessary this extra, 
and in the extent proposed, novel method of increasing 



their number ? By the correct decision of this question, 
the duty and even the expediency in my apprehension 
of encouraging this Society, is to be determined. With- 
out resorting to calculations, which on minds with no 
other data, have an influence as deceptive as such reck- 
onings are imposing, it will be my object to guide you to 
a conclusion by the statement of a few well authenticat- 
ed facts. 

The first, and not the least important, is, that the 
ratio in which the population of the United States has 
increased, is greater by far, than that in which the num- 
ber of its religious teachers has increased. The second 
is, that there are actually more organized congregations, 
and within the bounds of the preshyterian church more 
by one third, than there are candidates of the same de- 
nomination, to supply them. The third fact is, and in 
this connection it is an all-important fact, that there are 
in the United States more congregations, in all respects 
prepared to receive and support, able and faithful teach- 
ers, than our country does at this time contain. This 
statement if correct, authorizes the sentiment, that it is 
the duty of every community without delay according to 
its ability, to contribute to the supply of this deficiency. 
We are not called upon, you will observe, to supply all 
mankind with religious teachers. All mankind are not 
prepared to receive them. You are asked to furnish a 
portion of the means of relief to that part of the com- 
munity, who are so prepared, and who are suffering in- 
calculably from their privation. But how is this to be 
done ? Would you diminish the number of able and good 
men in the other professions ? Would you call away 
from the sick chamber, and the hall of justice, from the 
counting room, and the ship's deck, every young man 



who has piety and talents, which would adorn the pulpit ? 
Alas ! those professions have no such men to spare. 
Men of such endowments are useful and necessary in ev- 
ery department, in every occupation of life ; and wretch- 
ed is the community which exists without them. We 
must go then to the unformed mass of society, we must 
search out the worthy among that mass, who as yet are 
not enlisted in any profession. This is the only mode 
which providence has left us, for supplying the wants of 
our destitute congregations. Thus instead of weaken- 
ing, you will strengthen the bands of society ; and by 
promoting a greater equality in virtue and privilege, 
you will extend and diffuse, instead of contracting the 
means of general happiness. Bear it in mind then, that 
the object presented you, comprehensive as it is, tends 
not to produce any fatal disproportion, in the several 
classes of society, or between the number of preachers 
and the congregations this moment ready to receive 
and able to maintain them. And who among the 
discerning, the sober, the benevolent of our country, 
can hesitate to admit, that such a supply should be at 
least in a train of accomplishment. Yet since such a 
provision is not the work of a day or a year, common 
prudence prescribes an early and steady attention to all 
the necessary means for securing it. If then from time 
to time there are to be found in the church, such youth 
as promise to serve well her interests, as desire to serve 
them, as need nothing but cultivation and the means 
of subsistence for a few years, to qualify them for such 
service, is it not our duty to bid them God speed ? To 
encourage them, so far at least, as to loan them the 
price of an education, on the condition that one half of it 
be ultimately returned to ihe fund whence it was taken ? 



Can we refuse such men this aid, and the community suf- 
fering spiritual thirst, this cup of cold water, and still be 
said to love our neighbor as ourselves ? Is it altogether 
just to the individual, is it quite generous to the public 
to say to such a youth? young man your aim is too high. 
Your parentage and your condition in life is too low. 
He who comes out of Nazareth should think of nothing 
but the work bench, or of carrying the goad behind the 
plough. Was it less just and generous, in application to 
the son of Joseph and Mary, than it is to many of the 
sons of our mechanics and farmers and tradesmen ? I am 
sensible that our pious youth may be useful in the hum-* 
blest occupation, and did a criminal ambition only, 
prompt them to a higher calling, it would be both a 
wise policy and a just retribution to deny it gratification. 
I am sensible too that their desire to extend and enlarge 
their usefulness in the profession on which they have 
fixed their hearts, may prove ultimately abortive. But 
the same thing it is to be remembered might once have 
been said in relation to every man, whom public or pri- 
vate charity has reared. Yes of some men whom I 
could name, who have adorned the highest stations by 
preeminent excellence, and usefulness in every depart- 
ment of civil and literary and religious occupancy. But 
had it been said and said with effect, where had been 
the blessedness which has come upon the world through 
the charity scholars of Europe and even of our infant 
country ; men whose names and achievements will be 
remembered with christian gratitude, as long as the pro- 
fessions and the fields are remembered, in which they 
labored. That talents and goodness, wisely directed 
and vigorously employed, render man useful in every 
sphere in which he occupies them, is not to be doubted. 



8 

But it is as little to be questioned that to produce the 
most perfect state of society, every man should engage 
in that kind of business to which his common or peculiar 
cast of character, may be best adapted : and of this we 
are to judge not so much by the .condition in which 
providence has placed him, as by the endowments which 
God has given him. The youth therefore found in the 
most abject state, the tendencies of whose heart and 
mind clearly indicate that he was not born for private 
life, ought to be redeemed from his condition : and it 
would be neither unwise nor cruel,, though it be too 
much in every instance to expect, for the man of afflu- 
ence who wastes his money on a skull that cannot or 
will not learn, to bring about a change in the circum- 
stances of these youth. Some of the higher classes of 
society however, have so far sanctioned this opinion, as 
occasionally to raise boys of genius, by a generous and 
discerning patronage, from hopelessness, to honor. The 
pulpit and the press shall give them merited commend- 
ation, that they set their minds to discover the precious 
ore in its state of comparative inutility, and their hearts 
to adapt it to the Creators ends, in multiplying a 
thousand fold its value to society. The gem which but 
for this, had never reflected the brightness of its mak- 
er's wisdom, has thus found a place in the king's coro- 
net, and the herb which would have' wasted it juices in 
the desert, saved whole cities and provinces from an un- 
timely grave. Ah hearer forget not, that he to whom 
you look for immortality, he on whom the salvation of 
the world was suspended, was a carpenter's son, a root 
out of a dry ground, and ask yourself when you hear the 
unthinking and illiberal, pouring their contemptuous 
sneers upon the objects of these young men's solicitude, 



ask yourself, ask them, if the doctors of the temple who 
looked with jealous eye on Mary's son, would have lost 
any thing, by encouraging his aspirations to guide their 
nation to the kingdom of heaven ? 

Were we to confine our enquiry on this head to the 
benefit of the individual, we might pronounce the object 
worthy of some sacrifice. A vigorous intellect under 
the action of a good heart, and directed to the sacred 
calling, would find a happiness in his employment, which 
would amply reward us for the expence of cultivation. 
But we cannot restrict, the benefit to him. We must 
take into account the increased privileges of that large 
community to which he is devoted, and all the good 
which is generated through his influence, and all the 
triumphs of that mercy which they are to have an agen- 
cy in extending, through succeeding generations ; till the 
object, deepning and widning in its importance, ultimate- 
ly involves numbers and interests and destinies, surpass- 
ing mortal comprehension. Now christian could you do 
all this good alone, no power one would think could re- 
strain you from indulging the ambition to effect it ; but 
it is my happiness to tell you, that whoever does all 
that is in his poiver to ensure it ; in the sight of God, has 
done it all, and will lose nothing of the reward. 

From the simple statement then of things as they 
are, we perceive that the object is a good one, and we 
ought to consider also that to be placed in circumstan- 
ces which renders it our duty to advance it, involves not 
only a high privilege but a deep responsibility. 

But is the accomplishment of this object practicable? 

Or is it one of those visionary schemes of doing good, 

on which we can bestow only our wishes and our sighs, 

in the conviction that vain is the help of man? Was it 
2 



10 

in fact, as has been sometimes assumed, the object of 
our education societies, to supply at once the christian, 
Jewish, and pagan world with evangelists and pastors, 
at the ratio of one for every thousand souls, presuming 
on the existence of adequate provision for their support, 
it might be idle to ask your approbation and your offer- 
ings. It would be impossible to carry such a purpose 
into effect. The very presumption written on the face 
of it would betray our folly, the attempt would lead to 
an indiscriminate seizure of every humble youth for the 
sacred service, and strip every other profession and walk 
of life of its worthiest and most useful occupants. It 
would be mischievous as well as weak, thus to build up 
the broken Avails of the temple, by robbing it of some 
of the pillars on which it rests. But this is not our 
crime. Much as a multiplication of religious teachers 
is needed, the supply is not to be procured by a hot-bed 
growth. No young man should be pressed into this ser- 
vice : none should be encouraged without some other 
evidence than that of his piety, that the Lord has de- 
signated him to this service. And of this, the evidence 
is to be sought in his spontaneous desires, in his natural 
endowments, and in all that goes to form a presage of 
ministerial excellence. Thus instead of dictating a prov- 
idence, we are concurring with the providence of God. 
Thus we become laborers together with him. Thus 
we bear our part in making provision for the salvation 
of the world, and move no faster than his wisdom and 
benevolence dictates, who sees the end from the begin- 
ning, and whose compassion is beyond the control of 
weakness, whose wisdom is above the aid of conjecture. 
If then the object be merely to supply existing de- 
ficiencies, and to be in a train of preparation to meet 



11 

•the obvious demands of providence, as he shall open 
the ways which have not been trodden, there can be no 
doubt, that Christendom has power to accomplish the 
object. God has provided materials enough, both for 
the formation and support, of all the evangelists which 
are at present needed, without encroaching upon the 
other orders of society. We have heard from unques- 
tionable sources that the young men already taken up 
for this profession, have very generally answered the 
reasonable expectations of their patrons. That in every 
seminary in which they have been placed, they have 
maintained a respectable rank in the eye of their com- 
panions and their instructors. 

If then, even in our own country, there has hitherto 
been found no want of the proper materials for filling 
the profession, and if there is more ground prepared for 
receiving the seed of life, than there are hands to dis- 
tribute it, is it not manifest that nothing is wanting, but 
the will of the christian community, to accomplish the 
end for which our education societies are instituted ? 
Should not every individual who is able, contribute 
something toward its accomplishment ? Should not 
the young men of this infant society, be strengthened 
by an accession of other young men, equally capable of 
engaging in the delightful work, of ministering to indi- 
vidual usefulness and to public virtue ? May we not 
all, augment a little, their resources, and thus encou- 
rage them to persevere in a charity which has strong 
claims upon all classes of the community ? I am aware 
that the hearts and the hands of very many of our ac- 
quaintance have been for some time engaged in the 
promotion of this object, and I am happy to avail my- 
self of so fit an opportunity to acknowledge my indebt- 



12 

edness to some of them, for the honor of a place and a 
name in the parent society. The only question is, have 
we done what we could? Are there not some who 
have done nothing in aid of this good object, are there 
not many having done much, who can do more ? Shall 
we be unjust to any other portion of the community, 
in exact proportion to our liberality to that for which 
we speak ? Must we practice an uncommanded self- 
denial, to do more for the advancement of the interests 
in view, than we have already done ? Will our families 
suffer the privation of anything we owe to their comfort? 
Will they lose by the commutation, more than the na- 
tional family will gain ? Is it our error to go to the ex- 
treme of self-denial, and are our neighbors only prone 
to that of self-indulgence ? Are we so in loye with that 
kind of blessedness which is enhanced rather by giving 
than receiving, as to be extravagant in the frequency and 
fullness of our deeds of charity ? If to the present hour 
hearer, your conscience can testify that you have wrong- 
ed no man, and defrauded no man, nor injured yourself, 
nor abused the gifts of which God has made you stew- 
ard, by all your alms-givings, then may you lawfully in- 
crease your enjoyment, by offering a tribute of praise to 
the commendable zeal of this Society. 

Perhaps you would ask in turn, has this object been 
undertaken with proper motives, and is it pursued with 
judgment ? Who knows the heart of man ? Who can 
understand his own errors ? On this subject I can only 
say, I give my annual mite, and this church f and this 
Society of young men ; and probably all others associ- 
ated for the same purpose, cast in their offerings, in the 

* The first Presbyterian Church in this town pays annually a sum suf- 
ficient for the support of one beneficiary. 



13 

confidence that they who are entrusted with the man- 
agement of this business, are worthy to be trusted. Not 
that they are exempt from liability to err, or to be de- 
ceived, but that they act with all the wisdom and pru- 
dence and integrity of men under the eye of sagacious 
friends and watchful enemies, and under a sense of their 
accountability not only to the church, and to the public, 
but to God. And what better security could we have, 
were the whole management of this charity entrusted 
to ourselves. Be it as it may, we are at liberty to take 
the management of our own funds into our own hands ; 
and to withold our help from the necessitous while we 
have such liberty, partakes not a little of a suspicious 
policy. A careful attention therefore to our last enqui- 
ry, is all that remains to settle our opinions and regulate 
our conduct in relation to this charity. 

Does this object deservedly hold such a rank among 
the various charities of the day, as entitles it to any 
share of our al ms-givings, affections and prayers. 

It is not among the sentiments which I shall ever be 
proud to cherish and to utter, that an indiscriminate dis- 
tribution of our alms amounts to christian charity, even 
in the lowest sense of the phrase ; or that to be influ- 
enced by the boldness and importunity of those who so- 
licit our aid, is any just criterion of good will to men. 
To give or lend to every man, as the letter of the pre- 
cept enjoins, to every man I mean who is not ashamed 
to beg or borrow, would be to injure instead of benefit- 
ting society by encouraging corrupt passions, and vicious 
habits, and diminishing our ability to promote the high- 
est welfare of mankind. The machinery by which the 
real good of man is effected is too extensive and com- 
plicated for created attributes to invent or manage. 



14 

None other than the wisdom of God can discern how far 
any action or course of action is ultimately beneficial to 
mankind. None else is able to measure virtue on the 
scale of utility. By his judgment therefore we are to 
be governed in estimating the comparative rank and ex- 
cellence of the objects of our charity. He has given us 
a perfectly simple safe and efficient rule of doing good. 
In extending the blessings of his institutes, we know we 
are conforming to this rule, and among his ordinances a 
preached gospel holds the most exalted rank in the sys- 
tem of means for improving the moral character and 
condition of man. Beneficence of some sort is the nev- 
er-failing fruit of that goodness which is enjoined in the 
second table of the law. But what beneficence in ex- 
tent of influence is like that of supplying the place which 
the Son of God occupied when he dwelt with men ? 
In extending the hand for this end you are sure of pro- 
moting the virtue and happiness of mankind, and have 
nothing about which to be solicitous, but what is secret 
to yourselves and your Judge, the purity of your motives. 
This charity then is of no doubtful tendency.* Nothing 
without the influence of the institution it regards, will 
give to man the high elevation to which the benevo- 
lence of God has destined him. The more extensively 
the christian institutes are enjoyed* and the more pure- 
ly observed, the nearer will the world approach the end 
for which it is upheld, for which it was redeemed. 
When all men are gathered to the throne of the Lord, 

* The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States, a " body intended to concentrate the wisdom and piety of that 
church," have told us that this is not a project of dubious tendency, nor 
of secondary importance. As early as the year 1805, it eng-ag-ed their 
attention, and has ever since been pressed upon the churches and judica- 
tories under their care with increasing- earnestness. 



t5 

they will walk no more after the imagination of then 
evil heart. But how shall this gathering of the people 
to Jesus be effected ? By a supply of pastors after mine 
own heart said the Spirit of the Lord— pastors who 
shall feed my flock with knowledge and understanding. 
Are we then convinced that the harvest is plenteous 
and the laborers few, and can any thing but inattention 
or infidelity lead us to displace this object from the rank 
to which Jehovah has exalted it ? The time will never 
come, unless it be a time neither of prediction nor pro- 
mise, when to the rick alone it shall be given to know 
and unfold the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven : or 
when the habits of the affluent shall equally well quali- 
fy them and the poor, to contend successfully with the 
difficulties to be encountered, and to endure long the 
privations and toils which are required, in the work of 
the evangelical ministry. It has been said that every 
district of country with a rapidly increasing population, 
should have anticipated the necessity of an equally rap- 
id multiplication of religious teachers, and provided an 
antidote to the evils they suffer, instead of leaving it to 
us to furnish a remedy for their neglect. But they 
have failed to do it ; and they need the very influence 
we are laboring to provide, to preserve them from more 
fatal neglects. And it should be remembered for our 
encouragement, that in proportion to our success, their 
need of charity will be diminished, and they will be- 
come co-workers with us in extending the blessing to the 
fields remaining to be supplied. We are called upon to 
remove an evil which has insensibly crept upon the bet- 
ter part of the world till only extraordinary efforts can 
effect its cure — an evil which without such efforts for 
those abroad may soon press heavily upon our people a! 



w 

home. Less exposed as we are from poverty, from 
a rapid growth, and other causes, than some sections of 
our country, even New England itself, is in danger. 
Without any deficiency of minds, or seminaries for form- 
ing and furnishing them, she is able to retain fewer of 
such pastors as she needs, than she actually trains and 
annually furnishes for the church. How deplorable 
then the condition of those states which have none of 
our facilities for supplying themselves. Let us not de- 
ny them our sympathy. While God prepares materials 
to our hands, and gives us the ability to make with them 
pillars in his temple, let us seize the opportunity and ex- 
tend as widely as we may, the hallowed joy of those 
who desire to enter in and worship there. Had we the 
same superior facilities for improving the commercial ad- 
vantages of our common country, or of any country, 
without defrauding our own, who would be reluctant to 
avail himself of the glory of the enterprize ? Who 
would say the object had no claim to his regard ? We 
have not failed to applaud the generous interposition of 
the nation who threw her weight into the scale of the 
American colonies, when contending for their national 
existence and honor ? Ah ! our countymen had much at 
stake, and the prize was worthy of the sacrifice of fleets 
and treasures. But how does it fade upon our chris- 
tian vision as it comes in contrast with the object now 
flitting before it, the rescue of our nation from the 
thraldom of sin, from the extinction of the light of God 
Almighty and the Lamb ! Oh hearer, the interests of 
two worlds are suspended upon our liberality , in this 
thing. It is among the dearest objects which ever made 
a claim upon our philanthropy. It is pure and holy in 
its aims. It is adapted to the exigencies of our country. 



17 



It is fraught with the richest gifts of God to man. Its 
steady judicious pursuit, promises incalculable blessings 
to future generations — and this promise it makes with a 
higher credibility than that on which any risque or en- 
terprize in this world's business was ever undertaken. 
It is a promise founded on the experience of man, on the 
still surer basis of the pledge of God. These are our 
warrant for the confidence, that when in the field of 
christian cultivation we plant and water, he on whom 
the issue depends, will give the increase. 

Let us suppose we were called by a neighboring 
territory desolated by an invading foe, to come up to 
their help against the mighty. Who among our young 
men, ready to fly to their aid on the single condition of 
being furnished from the public magazine, would not 
look with pity on the community who should say to them, 
your aim is too high, your help is not wanted, your wis- 
dom is to keep contented at the plough. Let them take 
the field w T ho can run and war at their own expence. 
What would you say of those who thus repressed their 
ardor, only for want of generosity to furnish the means 
of their conveyance to the field. If there is any differ- 
ence in the two cases, it is infinitely against the oppos- 
ers of this charity. Ignorance and sin, invade many 
parts of our land, without the counteracting influence of 
the teachers of wisdom and piety; and spiritual indiffer- 
ence sees without an effort the desolations of Zion. 

Will you hold back the peaceable soldiers of Jesus 
Christ ? or will you speak to them this language of en- 
couragement"? I cannot go up to the battle. God has 
not endowed me for such an enterprize. I cannot be- 
stow my person and my life, but such as I have give 1 
unto you. Here I bring you the silver and the gold, an 
offering to our common nature, our common countrv, 



18 

and our common Lord. It is an offering made by the sa° 
crifice of a few youthful pleasures, and the retrenchment 
of a few needless expenditures. It is sacred to your use. 
Go equip for the service, be faithful, be valiant ; play 
the man for our people and for the cities of our God, and 
the Lord measure you success as seemeth him good. 

Pardon me hearer, but I must repeat it, the chris- 
tian ministry is the light of the world : and dreary as 
the shadow of death are the abodes in which this lamp 
never shone, in which it no longer illumines and burns. 
Through your efforts associated young men, the evils 
which some are suffering who are now destitute of this 
light, will be removed, and some of the blessings w T hich 
spring from its diffusion will be conferred on men ready 
to perish. If you are not weary in well doing, you may 
without prophetic eye, look forward to the period, when 
under the influence of some Brainerd, or Buchanan, or 
Mills, chosen of God, and raised from obscurity by your 
bounty, an enterprize shall be conceived and executed 
over which the assembly of the redeemed, together 
with the angels shall rejoice. How delightful then, will be 
the thought of having elevated the eye, wishfully intent 
on such an object, but cast down by the discouragements 
of an infidel father, or the poverty of a widowed moth- 
er ! How delightful even now to think of cheering the 
spirit, having no ambition but to tread in the footsteps 
of the crucified, and tell the world what it has itself al- 
ready learned, the value and the freeness of a Savior's 
love. But it is not among the most delightful only, it is, 
among the most prolific of charities. It is not sending 
forth a rivulet, but opening a fountain. It is not merely 
giving a cup of cold water to the traveller, but bringing 
to thousands of pilgrims, the waters of eternal life. Of 
no trivial importance, are the order and peace the in- 



19 

dustry frugality refinement and other social blessings, 
accumulated on society through the influence of a good 
minister of the gospel of peace ; but at the mention of 
the salvation of the souls to which he ministers, we de- 
spair of estimating or comprehending his value, though 
the excellency of the power be altogether of God. But 
how is the youth, rude in knowledge, unpractised and 
unskilled in the science of man, and unlearned in every 
thing which commands the intellect and the heart, to 
be fitted for every variety of pastoral duty, without a 
course of preparatory study ? And being without re- 
sources at home, to Avhat but the public patronage, is he 
to look for the means of becoming a public blessing ? 
In other professions, the indigent youth, anticipates the 
profits of his future labors, but in this, he anticipates on- 
ly the profit of others and a mere subsistence for himself. 
For him, young men, not for yourselves, you have con- 
descended to ask our aid. For him, did I say ? No 
rather for souls who without his aid will perish. For 
fields which will be desolate, if he do not plant them ; 
for plants which will die in the rearing, if his hand do 
not water them. Nay you are come to plead with this 
assembly for themselves perhaps, and for their children.* 

* Of the celebrated preacher of Hanover, Virginia, afterward Presi- 
dent of Princeton College, there is a tradition, which cannot fail to in- 
terest and perhaps it may stimulate the reader to go and do likewise. 

Mr. Robinson, who brought into form and order the Presbyterian 
Church in Virginia, when about to leave the infant flock so much in- 
debted to him, was urged to receive a proof of their gratitude, in a libe- 
ral pecuniary compensation. He declined it. It was urged upon him. He 
refused it. His friends found means to convey it into his sack. On dis- 
covering the fact, before parting, he said to them, " I see you are resolv- 
ed I shall have your money, and I will take it, but not for my use. There 
is a young man of promising talents and piety now studying with a view 
to the ministry. His circumstances are embarrassing. He has not funds 
to support him. This will relieve him. I will take charge of it, and ap- 
propriate it to his use ; and so soon as he is licensed we will send him to 
visit you. It may be that you are now by your liberality educating a 
minister for yourselves." So it happened. Davies who received the 
charity became the pastor of that flock, and the chief ornament of the 
evangelical ministry in Virginia. 



20 

You are come to tell them from the word of the Mo£t 
High, that the capital they vest in this stock, will pro- 
duce in this world an hundred fold, and the product will 
continue to increase from generation to generation. Ev- 
ery association which digs from the quarry and polishes, 
one such stone of the church, lays the foundation of ma- 
ny churches, and many associations, successively formed 
in the same fair image, and bears a humble part in com- 
pleting the fabric of human happiness and consummat- 
ing in the eye of man, the glory of its author. 

If such be indeed the character and rank and ten- 
dency of the object you present us, we, as well as our 
beneficiaries may feel ourselves addressed in the com- 
mand of our ascending lawgiver : Go preach the gospel 
to every creature. Go, rich man, through the agency 
of that abundance of which you are the steward, and 
preach the gospel. Go poor woman, with your two 
farthings, and take your part with the affluent, in the 
privilege of enlightening mankind. Go pennyless youth, 
who have hands and skill to labor, and in the fruits of 
the ground, or of the commerce of the seas, help to bear 
the good tidings of peace, to every creature. Go de- 
crepid and palsied ! yourselves subsisting on charity, still 
bring forth fruit in old age, and through the availing 
prayer of the righteous, aid us to send forth laborers to 
gather h\the whitened harvest. Thus christians, each 
in his own best remaining way, enlighten and purify, and 
comfort the world. Thus go, and as you are able, teach 
all mankind with emotions and with hopes more delight- 
ful than the best of modern poets taught, that 

Wherever " stands the messenger of truth, 
The leg-ate of the skies, with theme divine, 
And office sacred, and credentials clear — 

There stands 
The most important, most effecual guard, 
Support, and ornament, of virtue's cause." 



